


Tea

by tauhou



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Cohabitation, F/F, Mornings, Parenthood, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-10-11 13:28:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20546909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tauhou/pseuds/tauhou
Summary: She's still half-asleep, a mug of tea steaming in each hand, when she realises that she's heading back to their room.  Not her room,theirroom.Charity brings Vanessa a cup of tea in the morning.





	Tea

**Author's Note:**

> Set just after Vanessa moves into the Woolpack.
> 
> This has been clogging up my drafts folder for way too long. It's not much, and (as usual) it doesn't really go anywhere, but it is well past time for it to go out and make its way in the world.

Charity yawns. And stretches. And stares at the kettle, waiting for it to boil. Her mind is still foggy, fading in and out of focus. There's probably something sensible she should be thinking about, like the school notice Noah shoved in front of her face last night while she were trying to get Moz and Johnny to head upstairs to have their bath.

She rolls her neck on her shoulders and rubs her hands over her face. No doubt that grenade will turn up in due course, it can wait with the others until she's ready for the proper part of the day to start.

The teacups look companionable sitting next to each other on the bench - one hers, the other a recent arrival from Tug Ghyll. She's still surprised when Vanessa's bits and pieces turn up amongst the flotsam and jetsam of her own stuff. These marauding items disrupt her patterns, but, for all that she's had to take a stand sometimes, draw a line, it's mostly good. Better even. Instead of an endless parade of things she'd liked fine, and maybe regretted spending the money on in retrospect, she finds objects Vanessa has chosen. Absurdly cheerful yellows, delicate blues, some proper good-quality practicalities of various colours. She knew she were in a bad way when she found herself staring at a pot scrubber like it held the answers to a question she had been struggling to voice for years. Decades probably.

She's still half-asleep, a mug of tea steaming in each hand, when she realises that she's heading back to their room. Not her room, _their_ room. She hasn't been able to keep that thought out of her head for more than about two minutes for the better part of a week, and here she is carting tea about the place barely thinking about it.

It were bound to happen eventually, and a good thing too if she's ever to get Chas off her back. She smiles a little sadly. Still.

She's surprised that she's surprised herself with the thought.

The floorboard at the top of the stairs squeaks as she steps on it -- wincing as she calculates how far the sound will have traveled through the early morning quiet. She can't hear anyone stirring though. Or grumbling about the noise, so she carefully makes her way to their bedroom doorway. She holds her breath as she nudges the door open with her shoulder. Sharing a room might be starting to be normal, but she's still not quite over this bit. The lump of bedclothes with her girlfriend in it somewhere. She's so flimmin small that she can almost hide entirely when the duvet is arranged right. The second morning after they'd moved in, Vanessa'd vanished right into the bedclothes and she'd nearly lost it when she thought maybe, somehow, Vanessa had thought better of this moving in together lark and had run out on her while she was making the tea. Wouldn't have been the first time.

But whether she can spot her from the doorway or not, she's been there every morning this week, and it's almost starting to become normal. She huffs a quiet breath of derision out her nose. Not that this normal will ever be anything other than completely bonkers. She sets the cups down and smiles sideways. Totally daft, this alternate reality. But she'll stay here as long as she can.

She closes the door quietly, and slips back into bed. Her girlfriend is sound asleep, warm, her limbs heavy, and easy to wrap herself around. It'd be sensible to try and get herself back to sleep, but having Vanessa here in her arms is far too distracting to relax properly. There's all these little details and moments which keep nudging her, making her pay attention. The back of Vanessa's neck is warm, and fits perfectly when she tips her forehead against it. She's careful with the movement, but it's not like there's any point in being too subtle about it, Vanessa needs to get up sometime in the next half hour if she's to get to work on time. And it seems a pity to waste the opportunity to be close.

"Mmmmng," Vanessa murmurs. Then she goes quiet long enough that it seems like she's going to stay asleep, and Charity thinks maybe she'll get five minutes of just breathing her girlfriend in. But Vanessa reaches around, with that deft, irresistible way she has, and drags Charity's hand forward, leading it under the shirt of her pajamas across her stomach.

"Morning." Her voice is still muddy with sleep and her face is half-lost in the pillows, but there's a sweetness in it. Like the moment waking up when you realise today is a holiday, but you can't yet remember which one. Warm and indistinct.

"Morning babe." She lifts her head and kisses her hairline just behind her ear, lips brushing across the soft marginal hairs, the familiar kick of desire in her belly. It's still strong, very, but not as rough as it once was. Which is merciful really, it were brutal at times.

Vanessa hums under her breath, and Charity nudges her nose along the edge of her ear, wanting to hear the noise again.

Vanessa sighs. "Are you trying to seduce me on a workday morning."

"That depends on how much you want me to be seducing you I suppose." Charity says, nipping gently on the edge of her earlobe.

Vanessa turns in her arms, and looks up at her. Her eyes are puffy from sleep and her hair is a complete bird's nest, the morning light is ruthlessly honest about the wrinkles around her eyes. Charity's mind blanks completely, overwhelmed by how flimmin gorgeous she is.

She reaches up and runs her fingers through Charity's hair, pushing it back from the temples. Looks like she's staring at something precious, something special. Charity could watch that expression all day. Thinks maybe she just will. Chuck the rest of the day and stay in bed. Enjoy this while she has it.

She's distracted from her daydream by her girlfriend's finger running down her cheek and drifting delicately along the edge of her lips. She tries to nip them with her teeth, but even half-asleep Ness is too quick. She has awfully clever fingers does Vanessa Woodfield.

The sudden movement nudges her train of thought enough to remember the tea. She leans in, intending just to kiss Vanessa briefly, a sort of punctuation, a pause before they get on with the day-to-day tasks that eat up their mornings. But the way Vanessa shifts under her, pushes up into the kiss, turns that kick of desire from earlier into a flood. Even in ridiculous cotton pajamas, it's still the same.

She likes talking to Vanessa. Honestly she does. She's smart, and funny, and insightful irritatingly often. But these wordless conversations are the ones she loves best. The way she tips her head when she wants to deepen a kiss, the subtle pressure of her finger tips on her waist, pulling her in. How the shifts in Vanessa's breathing hint her what to do next well before there's any clear sound. The flick of a cheeky smile, a light in the eye, teasing that builds to something. The way they both pull back slightly at the same time, to check in, make sure the other is still here, still into this.

She loves how easy Vanessa is to read. How up front she is, whether it's a gentle feint away from something she don't like, or how she chases a sensation that works for her, something she wants more of.

Reading people is something Charity does. It's not like she has to turn it on or tune it in. It's just there, all the time one way or another. Across those who have hung around, for a few nights or more, she's read it all. Desire, conceit, doubt, derision, even the lies. It had never occurred to her that there were anything to be done about it. You take the rough with the smooth, the hard with the soft, the cruel games with the moments of tenderness. But then, with Vanessa -- sure there's push back, moments of frustration or disappointment, that hot head of hers -- but on the whole, she's just Vanessa, enjoying herself, enjoying this, in an ever-unfolding range of ways.

Charity grins as she kisses her way down the side of Vanessa's neck, undoing a couple of buttons on her pajama shirt as she finds the flocked cotton in the way. This space they make between them, it's beautiful, and subtle, and still, so profoundly unexpected.

She didn't trust it to start with. Couldn't. What with Vanessa running out on her and that embarrassing performance with Daz, and how cautious Vanessa'd been when they'd hooked up again after. But inexorably, inevitably, Charity's been drawn in, seeking that feeling, the warmth she gets when she finds something that Vanessa really likes, the flush of relief as she lets herself trust that this thing they have going is ok. Good even. She's followed it, like an outgoing tide, finding herself far, far from shore when she finally looked around and took stock.

Vanessa laughs softly to herself, her breathing heavy. "Am I correct in assuming that there is tea on the bedside cabinet?"

Charity mmphs an assent.

"And that tea is getting cold?"

Charity undoes another couple of buttons, exposing Vanessa's ribs below the curve of her breast. "Might be."

Vanessa laughs to herself again, interrupted when her breath hitches as Charity explores the exposed skin.

"Are you suggesting you're capable of altering the laws of thermodynamics."

Charity nips her skin, smoothing it over with her tongue, then her thumb as she props her head up on her hand. "Can't make any promises, but I've been underestimated by smarter folk than you in the past babe."

She laughs, just enough to set Charity's head moving with the motion. "Still kinda waiting for you to fail to exceed my expectations actually." She reaches up and walks her finger tips along her collar bone, her eyes following the motion before drifting back to her face.

The words are a reflex, "Give it time, babe." She'd take it back -- but for all that she didn't think too hard about it before she said it, it stands scrutiny. It's not like her track record is much to brag about.

"Charity," Vanessa grumbles. Then her expression shifts and she drags her finger along her jaw line. "How about ... we forget about how you're going to disappoint me in some stupidly distant future." She pulls the corner of Charity's jaw towards her. "And focus on making sure you blow my mind before the alarm goes off." She finishes her sentence with a deep kiss in the tender skin just below Charity's ear, and Charity can feel the sensation echoing down her spine.

"Challenge accepted," Charity says, her voice twisting as she shifts her weight so she can settle her hips between Vanessa's legs and dropping her head to let out a breath over the bare skin no longer covered by her pajama top.

"Charity," there's more than a hint of a whine in her voice now. "I were joking. A bit." She catches her eye, and there's a hazy glimmer in the blue, which somehow emphasises just how much she wasn't joking. "It's a ruddy school day."

"Yes. An it's early."

"It is not. And any of the boys could walk in any minute."

Charity runs a trail of kisses down Vanessa's sternum to the curve of her belly. "We've got at least five minutes. And it's not my fault Johnny never learnt to knock on bedroom doors."

"Yes, but."

She grins, tracing the tip of her nose along soft skin. "Besides, I can be quick." She wants this now. Not enough to really push it, but enough that she's not going to let Vanessa back down just because it's a school morning and she's being all proper and reasonable. And judging by the way Vanessa is breathing and how she just subtly canted her hips, Vanessa wants this as much as she does. Maybe more.

She pulls up enough to quirk her head at Vanessa, who is looking down at her with a mixed expression; half in the conversation, and half her brain lost entirely.

"Alright. But get a ruddy move on will you." Vanessa drops back onto the pillows and drags in a shaky breath.

She contemplates, very briefly, making a smart comment of some kind, but they really don't have much time. It's rare that they get much of the morning with each other before the household wakes up and starts making its demands on their time and attention. And she wants this. Very much. She runs her fingers under the waistband of Vanessa's pajama bottoms, stifling a laugh at the contrast between the very clear pictures in her head and the bunnies with stars and moon boats on the fabric.

Vanessa grunts low, and pushes her down, hand firm on her shoulder. She takes the hint, but pauses, dragging her tongue along the edge of her pajama top, drawing out a noise half-way between a squeak and a gasp. She ghosts her teeth over a nipple, the pressure just short of what Vanessa usually likes. She could do this for a long while. She has done in the past, pushing Vanessa well past the point where her words form recognisable sentences. But this really isn't the morning for taking her time, so she edges downwards.

She sweeps her lips low across Vanessa's belly, her chin grazing the waist band of her pajama bottoms, and takes the opportunity to dip her lips to the hollow just up from Vanessa's hipbone. She wonders how much longer she really has before the alarm goes. She could leave it here. Save the mood for later. Whenever later is. Tonight, hopefully. A definite perk of Vanessa moving in, being able to assume that possibility. She grins to herself. Maybe lunch, if she's lucky. And, to be fair, Vanessa's not wrong. They are short of time this morning. So, it's probably a good thing, overall, that she hears a thump from the boys' room.

Charity sighs, resting her head for a moment on her girlfriend's hip. She looks up to see Vanessa blowing her fringe out of her eyes with a frustrated humpf. Then she limbers her way up the bed, dragging the duvet into place, as they hear cluddering footsteps coming down the hall.

Vanessa has finished doing up her buttons and is just propping herself up against the pillows as the door swings open, Johnny's face bright as he leaps onto the middle of the bed. He clambers over to Vanessa, who looks a little flushed still, and is attempting to work out what he's saying, his words mumbling over each other in his excitement.

She gives them a moment or two to settle, Johnny tucking himself into his mum's side under her arm and Moz sitting at their knees watching the Woodfields intently. Then she passes the still-reasonably-hot tea to her love with a smile.

Vanessa looks at her as she accepts the tea and gives her a look, biting her lip and shaking her head faintly.

"Wot?"

"Sorry about this."

"Ain't nothing to be sorry for." She tips her head, considering. "You're looking rather sweet there, covered in children. Besides." she says as Moz throws himself across the bed towards her. "There's always tonight."

Vanessa shakes her head as she looks over Johnny's head, "I'm counting on it."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not over that early scene with Charity at the bottom of the stairs with two mugs of tea. Don't know that I ever will be.


End file.
